The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set

by N. S. Wikarski

  She made no move to take it. “I’ll be alright.”

  He placed the sandwich firmly in her palm. “You can’t climb a mountain on nothing but a power bar and a cup of coffee.”

  “He’s right, you know,” Griffin piped up. “You should take it.”

  Cassie hesitated, baffled by Erik’s consideration. “Thanks, dude.” She put the sandwich in her jacket pocket. “I’ll eat it on the way.”

  He gave a curt nod. “OK then, let’s roll. The car’s parked right outside.”

  Griffin and Cassie designated Erik as their driver. The security coordinator allowed the pythia to sit up front with him for a change. They had made a point of renting an SUV with plenty of legroom for Griffin in the back seat.

  Since there was no traffic to contend with, the short trip to the farm took less than fifteen minutes. When they pulled up beside the building, Ortzi’s car was already parked there. He must have been waiting for the sound of their vehicle because no sooner had they gotten out of the SUV than he emerged from the basseri.

  “Shall we take my car?” he offered. They obligingly climbed in and were off.

  Even though the peak of Anboto was visible from the farm, they had to travel several miles to pick up the trail head in the sleepy little hamlet of Arrazola.

  When they parked, Ortzi opened his trunk and removed a backpack and a coil of rope.

  “What’s that for?” Cassie asked suspiciously. “We’re not going to be rappelling, are we?”

  The trove keeper chuckled. “Most of the trail is very easy, but we have to cross the top of the mountain to get to the cave. The path to visit Anbotoko Sorgina is a little steep, so we need a guide rope for that part.”

  “A little steep,” Cassie murmured looking up at the peak. It was so close now that it seemed to loom directly overhead, threatening to crush her. She shook off the gloomy notion. “Let’s get to it, then.”

  They struck off on a broad level path that led through gently rolling fields. Everything was green and covered with dew in the early morning light. Eventually, the fields gave way to forest, and the grassy undergrowth gave way to more rocky terrain. The higher they climbed, the scarcer the vegetation became until there was nothing but grey limestone dotted with sparse patches of grass. At that point, the trail took a sharp turn upward.

  Even though Cassie wasn’t ordinarily afraid of heights, she deliberately avoided looking down. This climb was different than anything she’d experienced on Crete or in Turkey. When they were at Karfi, they’d been on a mountain plateau. Even Mount Ida hadn’t seemed that daunting since they’d traveled by car almost all the way. Anboto was scarier. The trail close to the summit was steep, and Cassie knew there was nothing to break her fall if she lost her footing. The thought made her extremely nervous, but she wasn’t about to show her trepidation to the others. She focused on the path in front of her and commanded herself to block out everything else.

  By the time they reached the peak, the sun was directly overhead. Ortzi paused to fasten his rope to an outcropping of rock. He tested the knots to make sure they would hold.

  “Now where do we go?” Cassie asked in surprise. There was nothing in front of her but sky.

  “Down,” he said simply. “The cave is on the other side of the peak, below us a little ways. I will go first.”

  He turned to face the three who were standing above him. Backing down feet first, he kept a firm grasp on the guide rope. They could hear scraping sounds where his feet met loose rock and gravel. Then after several moments, he called for the next person to follow.

  “Ladies first, toots,” Erik prompted. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  Cassie swallowed hard. She was surprised to find this experience so unnerving. Giving her teammates a brave smile, she turned her back on the sheer drop beneath her and grasped the rope. Keeping her eyes on them, she felt her way down the narrow declivity between two jagged pillars of limestone.

  Eying the bracelet which Ochanda had given her the day before, she whispered, “Bangle, don’t fail me now!”

  She let her toes find their way along the path while her hands clutched the guide line. At one point, she lost her footing on some loose gravel and slid downwards. The palms of her hands received a nasty rope burn before she managed to stabilize herself. A few tenuous steps later and she could feel Ortzi’s hands on her shoulders, steering her to safety.

  “Very good,” he said encouragingly.

  She turned to face him. Just past his shoulder, she could see a dark indentation in the mountainside. “Is that it?” she asked.

  “Yes, that is the cave of Anbotoko Sorgina.”

  “The Witch of Anboto,” she translated with a shiver of apprehension.

  “You can go sit by the entrance and wait for the others if you like,” Ortzi suggested.

  The terrain leveled out in front of the cave and Cassie gratefully made for the flat space. She breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down and looked out at the countryside below her. The view was awe-inspiring—a patchwork of fields with the highway, a white line, snaking its way across the valley floor. Looking directly ahead, Cassie could see a series of misty peaks in the distance. As she sat admiring the landscape, she failed to notice her teammates walking over to join her.

  Once they too had spent a few moments in silent appreciation of the scene, Erik said, “Showtime, toots. Get on up and do your thing.”

  Ortzi looked at Cassie curiously, apparently not understanding Erik’s meaning.

  Griffin tried to explain. “Our pythia has gotten very good at tracking the elusive Minoans. When we were on Malta, all she had to do was touch a stone at each of the ruins, and she could tell if they’d been there or not.”

  “I see.” Ortzi sounded impressed.

  Cassie stood and dusted off her jeans. She turned to face the gaping hole in the mountain. Unlike Psychro Cave on Crete, the entrance wasn’t wide. It was tall and narrow.

  She extended her hands before her and approached the rock. “Here goes,” she said with butterflies in her stomach. Shutting her eyes, she placed her palms flat against the stone. Nothing happened.

  Cassie knit her brows. “Hmmm. I can sense that they were here, but I’m not getting a visual. It’s like what happened at the stone circle on Ida. I had to be near the spot where they left the relic before I got a hit.”

  “I guess we need to go farther inside the cave,” Erik proposed.

  Cassie eyed the entrance. The walls were practically touching, and the interior was pitch black. “This’ll be fun,” she murmured to herself.

  “We will need lights to go forward,” Ortzi suggested.

  Everyone reached into their backpacks for flashlights.

  Once past the entrance, a jagged corridor sloped downward leading into total darkness. They were forced to travel single file.

  Ortzi went first to act as their guide. He was followed by Cassie and then her two teammates.

  It only took a few moments for them to walk far enough into the recesses of the cave to be completely cut off from daylight. As the ground grew more uneven, Cassie stumbled over a rock protruding from the cavern floor. She bumped against one of the walls and threw out a hand to steady herself.

  “Oh oh,” she said and immediately felt herself falling.

  The last thing she heard as Erik rushed to catch her was, “Here we go!”

  She felt she was still in the cave but farther inside than the place she had just been standing. She observed a group of five people all holding torches. They were studying a section of cavern wall which had been inscribed with the familiar lily symbol. Then something quite unexpected happened. One of their number turned around to face Cassie. It was an old woman with long grey hair. Cassie remembered glimpsing her at the stone circle on Ida. The woman looked her directly in the eye and smiled. Cassie tried to move her lips to speak, but nothing came out. Then she was back in the present.

  “Not too bad this time,
” Erik said, grinning. “You didn’t toss your cookies.”

  She realized she was sitting on the ground with her back resting against Erik’s shoulder. His arms were wrapped around her.

  She glanced at him, flustered. “Sorry you had to catch me again.”

  “Any time,” he said, a trifle too softly.

  Even more flustered by his tone, she scrambled to get to her feet. Still dizzy, she listed to the side. “Whoa!” she exclaimed.

  Griffin and Erik each grabbed one of her elbows.

  “I take it they were here?” the scrivener hinted tactfully.

  “Yuppers!” Recovering her balance, Cassie darted past Ortzi. She marched directly to the spot where her vision had shown her the lily. Training her flashlight on the wall, she revealed the now all-too-familiar symbol.

  “Eureka!” Griffin shouted.

  “It was the oddest thing,” Cassie commented to her companions. “This vision was different than the one I had on Ida. Last time, I was standing alongside them after they’d placed the artifact in the ground. I didn’t become one of them, and they didn’t know I was there. I was just a bystander watching the whole scene. But this time...” She paused. “It was like we were skyping across time.”

  “I beg your pardon?” Griffin peered at her in confusion.

  Cassie continued. “One of them was an old woman with long grey hair. I remembered seeing her in my last vision. I got the impression she was the leader of the expedition. Sort of like their high priestess. Anyway, this time she turned around and looked right at me. Then she smiled.”

  “You mean she saw you?” Erik asked incredulously.

  The pythia nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I tried to say something to her, but that’s when I came out of the trance.”

  “How very extraordinary,” Griffin murmured.

  “Anyway, I could feel that the artifact is hidden in a recess in the ground, right below the lily,” Cassie added.

  The others immediately focused their flashlights on the spot she indicated. Ortzi bent down to scrape the loose gravel away from the cavern floor.

  With an exclamation of surprise, he said, “Look!”

  They all saw it—the faint outline of a square.

  The men bent down and dug furiously around the outline, loosening gravel with the trowels they had brought along for the purpose. Eventually, they unearthed a small metal box and dragged it to the surface. They pried the lid off and eagerly craned their necks to see the contents.

  Cassie pointed her flashlight into the box. It revealed nothing but empty space. “Oh no!” she cried in dismay. “I was afraid this would happen sooner or later. We were really pushing our luck to expect that all the relics would have stayed put after three thousand years.”

  At that moment, the scuffle of footsteps could be heard from deeper inside the cave. In unison, they shot the beams of their torches toward the sound.

  A thin, grave-looking man emerged from the shadows and stood before them. “You will not find what you came for. It is not here.”

  “I’m becoming rather annoyed at hearing those words so frequently on this trip,” Griffin complained.

  “Who are you?” Erik challenged.

  “Someone who has been waiting for you a very, very long time.”

  Ortzi began to fire questions at the stranger in Euskara. A rapid exchange of dialogue occurred between the two men while the Arkana team swiveled their heads from one side to the other vainly attempting to catch some meaning from the conversation.

  Eventually, the trove keeper threw his hands up in disgust. “He wants to sit down outside and explain things to you.”

  “Fine by us,” the security coordinator assented.

  They all filed silently out of the darkness and seated themselves in a semi-circle at the mouth of the cave.

  In the outdoor light, Cassie could see the man’s features more clearly. She was surprised that although he spoke the Basque language, he possessed the olive complexion and dark eyes of a typical Spaniard. Tall and lean with long facial features, he must have been around forty.

  “My name is Iker Mendiluze,” he began. “As I said, I have been waiting for you a very long time.”

  “Why’s that?” Erik asked suspiciously. “Did somebody put you onto our trail?”

  Iker gave a thin smile. “Nothing so simple as that. I am the most recent in a long line of those who have been waiting and watching for this day.”

  “This day?” Cassie echoed.

  “For the day when a seer with grey eyes would come to this cave—a young woman with the second sight who would know immediately where the treasure was hidden.”

  “Who told you about us?” Griffin asked.

  “The ones who placed the treasure here. You called them the Minoans,” Iker replied calmly.

  “OK, that’s not freaky,” Cassie said.

  Unperturbed, Iker continued. “I overheard you say that you saw them in your vision. Their priestess saw you as well. She knew you would come. Unfortunately, she did not know how many centuries would pass before you appeared. Ever since the Minoans placed their treasure here, there has been a sentinel to guard it until the day you arrived.”

  “Is that what you are?” the pythia asked. “A sentinel?”

  Iker nodded. “That duty has passed from generation to generation.”

  “So why isn’t the treasure here?” Erik asked testily. “Wasn’t that supposed to be your job—to guard it?”

  The sentinel gave a bitter laugh. “For over two thousand years, we did our job well. Until the year 1610.”

  “What happened in 1610?” Cassie was mystified.

  “Ah, I understand.” Ortzi nodded sagely. “It was because of Zugarramurdi.”

  “Yes,” Iker agreed. “Because of Zugarramurdi.”

  The Arkana team stared quizzically at the two men.

  “Would either of you care to explain yourselves?” Griffin finally prompted.

  “We must start at the beginning,” Ortzi said. Addressing the Arkana team, he asked, “You remember the stories the etxekoandre told you about Mari?”

  They nodded in agreement.

  “You must understand that Mari is not the only supernatural being who lives among the Basques. There are many, many others. For example, there are the lamiak—beautiful women with golden hair. They like to live by rivers, and that is why they have ducks’ feet. They will help a person with his work if they are given presents. If a farmer leaves some food by the riverbank overnight, the food will be gone in the morning, and his field will be plowed.”

  The Arkana team smiled at the fanciful notion.

  “Among the many creatures of Basque legend, the most important for the purposes of our explanation are the sorginak,” Ortzi added.

  “You mean witches?” Cassie translated the Basque word.

  The trove keeper shrugged expressively. “That is one name for them. Some people would call them priestesses—women skilled in magic and medicine. Mari is served by a court of sorginak. They like to meet at her sacred places, mainly caves.”

  “Did they ever exist?” Cassie persisted.

  “They existed both in legend and in fact. They would gather together on Friday nights for the akelarre.”

  “I imagine an akelarre would be a kind of witches’ sabbath,” Griffin speculated.

  “Yes,” Ortzi agreed. “And that is where our troubles began in 1610.”

  The two Basque men exchanged a dark look. Iker took up the narrative. “The Catholic Church in Spain was eager to root out heretics. Anyone who venerated the deities of the old times would have been considered a heretic—especially the women who still performed the rituals of worship. The Church called them witches. The Basque country had long been considered as the center of witchcraft in Spain, so the Inquisition was sent here.”

  “Yet another depressing example of overlord religious genocide,” Griffin muttered under his breath.

&nbs
p; “Hold on! You mean the Spanish Inquisition?” Cassie couldn’t believe her ears. “Torquemada and racks and burning at the stake?”

  “1610 would have been long after the death of Tomas de Torquemada.” Griffin corrected her. “He was the first Grand Inquisitor. However, the stake and the rack would have been standard practice even as late as the seventeenth century.”

  Iker continued. “There is a very large cave at Zugarramurdi near the French border which was a known meeting place of the sorginak. That is where the Inquisition concentrated its persecution.”

  “A tribunal was set up at Logrono,” Ortzi said. “For two years, thousands of confessions were extorted from the people, mainly women and children. Some were burned at the stake while others died under torture.”

  “Yikes,” Cassie shuddered involuntarily. “The Inquisition might have considered me a witch since I can see things nobody else can.”

  “Very likely,” Griffin agreed.

  “Long after the persecution ended, the memory of it remained,” the trove keeper observed. “To this day in Zugarramurdi, there is a huge bonfire in the cave on midsummer’s eve in honor of the day of the witch.”

  “So now you understand why caves were no longer safe,” Iker concluded. “The Inquisitors scoured the countryside trying to find all the places where the witches might hold an akelarre. Because the sorginak were so closely tied to the worship of Mari, it was only a matter of time before the Church would seek out the holiest of all mountains associated with the goddess.”

  “Anboto,” Cassie murmured. “You couldn’t leave the artifact here. They might have found it.”

  Iker nodded somberly. “That is so. An ancestor of mine was the sentinel at the time. Though it was painful to leave his homeland, he knew he had to move the treasure somewhere the Inquisitors would never find it. He could not return because it was his duty to keep watch over the treasure wherever it might be. So, he taught his son a message and his son taught that message to his daughter. And she taught it to the next sentinel and so on until today.”

  “What was the message?” Griffin asked simply.